Early life

He was of Greek descent through his maternal grandmother and Irish through his maternal grandfather.[6][7][8][9] His father was mainly of Scots-Irish descent but also had Scottish and English ancestry.[10][11]

Hart was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States thanks to his mother Helen, who was born in New York.[12][13]

He was nicknamed Bizz (or Biz) by his siblings. His sister Diana has claimed that it was because he was always so busy[14] with working on something, but his brother Bret said in his autobiography that it was because he was always up to some mischievous business.[15]

As a child he once accidentally started a fire in the Hart House while playing in the top floor.[16][17]

Amateur wrestling

Hart was a good fighter and was the first of his siblings to win an amateur wrestling championship at high school.[18]

Career

Pro wrestling

Stampede Wrestling and Amarillo

Born to Stu and Helen Hart, Dean Hart began wrestling in his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion along with younger brothers Bret and Owen Hart during the 1970s. He also helped out behind the scenes later on but remained mostly preoccupied with other endeavours during the 80s.

Hart worked together with his brothers Bret and Bruce in Dory Funk's Amarillo wrestling promotion in texas during the very early 70s. They was invited to travel to Amarillo due to te fact that they and Funk had become very good friends. The three of them traveled there alone and Bruce Hart described the journey as something akin to Stand By Me as they ran into several missadventures on the way, including geting chased by people who mistaked them for hippies due to their long hair.[19][20]

National Wrestling Alliance, Hawaii

Hart lived in Hawaii for lengthy time and befriended many wrestlers there, among them Prince Sui who would later work for his Stampede Wrestling on recommendation from Hart.[21]

Music promoting

Hart held the first ever outdors concert in Calgary when he was nineteen years old, the event was called Fantasy Park and featured people such as Charlie Rich and comedian Billy Holiday as well as model Barbi Benton as a special guest.[24]

Hart would regularly promote music concerts in Clearwater Beach, which was owned by his father.[25] Some time during the 80s he and his brother Bruce booked the band Iron Butterfly to perform on the beach this proved lead to difficulties when some of the band members got intoxicated.[26]

Some of Hart's rock concerts on the beach very mismanaged and did not turn a profit.[27] This led to payment issues and resulted in the area being burned down.[28]

Personal life

At some point in the early 80s Hart, perhaps unwittingly, got involved in the Samoan mafia, he helped transport some boxes which contained weapons. Later the gangsters threatened Hart's life since they believed that he would testify against them in court when they were facing murder charges.[29]

Family

Hart and his girlfriend Tammy had a daughter named Farrah Hart, born in April 1990.[30]

Death

He suffered serious injuries in 1978 when struck by a city bus, the accident severely damaged his kidneys.[31] He told his family very little of the accident.[32] Diagnosed with Bright's disease during the late 1980s, he eventually died of kidney disease on November 21, 1990 at the Hart family mansion.[33] Hart was creamated.[34]

Hart was the first of the Hart family to suffer an early death. His sister, Diana Hart, stated in her book that had any members of the Hart family been tested as a compatible donor, a kidneytransplant might have saved his life. However, this option was never properly discussed by the family.[35]

His brother Bret has stated that the family was aware of the possibility of a transplant but that Dean had not been following the doctors instruction about his diet and not done his daily dialysis as he had been told, this resulted in Dean dying unexpectedly at home before he could be taken to the hospital by their father.[36]

“I lost to [Ted] DiBiase at the end, but we had a nice little sequence there before we went into the finish and he beat me. I remember that being a salute to my brother Dean, a tribute to him. That match always had meaning to me.”